Endless ribbing...

 I have decided to bind off the green socks. The ribbing is getting to be very monotonous and very long so will have some tiny balls of that yarn left and add it to my 'frankenstock' yarn. If I had kept going on the staggered cable I would only now be changing to the rib section. Picture of them finished for next time as the bind off is only half done.

I was remembering how much fun I had knitting the 'Irish Hiking Scarf' and decided to try that again, so rifled through my mostly acrylic yarn. I pouted that KP sent me a small ball of the Wool of the Andes in the exact color that would be perfect for it and moved on. I saw this acrylic large ball of aran/chunky yarn that I caked a while back because it was a mess. I then saw how neat that was and looked at the AFW semi ball and wondered what happened. If I can cake that larger yarn...what the heck. I figured it out, my winder only has issues with winding from a swift with no even tension. Others have caked the yarn just fine so I grabbed the center pull end and voila! Perfectly caked yarn. Wish I had figured that out with the green before I started on it.

I decided to start the decreases on the hat and then realized it would be another situation of more yarn leftover than reasonable. Luckily I had only done about 6 rows and ripped that back and continued on with the 2x4 ribbing. Just have to be patient and rotate through other projects but I'm already beyond where I had started the decreases so it's getting close to the end. 

Cycling through projects is actually good for your hands, just like having different branches in a bird cage so they exercise the foot muscles gripping different diameter perches like in nature. So ....

that's my reasoning for starting another project and I'm sticking to it.

Lots of progress, much wow.

 I have three projects that I am rotating through and trying to do at least two rounds every time I pick one up. Sometimes I only do one round of the hat because it goes so much faster but you know how it is getting caught up in the motions and then discover you passed your row marker ten stitches ago. Any progress is better than none.

Yesterday and today. Almost double the distance in a short time. I love using worsted weight yarn on a small project. The colors are also fantastic but by the time I get to the top of the crown it will mostly be the greens and almost cammo looking. That's all good, my son is tall so the blues showing up where people can see them is perfect.

The two sock pairs. Green ones still have a long way to go and am getting a bit tired of the 2x2 rib. I have decided on a pattern for the Sheepicorn socks and it's going to be cute if I can pull it off. 

The foot top is going to be Seersucker as it's the only stitch that is fairly flat and yet kind of looks like sheep wool (already started on it with about an inch of plain for the toe). I was going to do something like irish moss or seed stitch on the sole but then decided it would be too lumpy.

This stitch pattern is my basis for the leg section. I've actually knitted this scarf years ago and it turned out great. I would still have it if my daughter hadn't left it at a friends house at Lake Tahoe. It's a 3x6 cable that is the best representation of a unicorn horn, right? Get it? Get it? Sheepicorn? I may leave out the column of knit stitch in between so the cable show better. Still deciding on whether to do just a pair of cables on the sides or this all the way around. Leaning toward cables all the way up.  The dicey part is merging the Seersucker into this on the top of the foot. I have to be very patient and hold the Seersucker all the way until I'm above the ankle line and then start the cables. So Seersucker for at least two inches above the ankle line for sure all the way around. 

Can't wait to see how that all works out! Might have them done by October at this rate.

Half step back three forward

 I let the hanks hang for a few minutes because I was impatient of course. But I did let them relax out of the twist at least. I then caked them as best I could. My winder does not like heavy yarn at all.

I had to wind to a point and then take it off and hand ball the rest. You remember my cramped quarters and my winding set up. The skeins were fantastic and didn't tangle at all, I was so careful opening them up. 

For the record I balled them yesterday Jan 12 and started knitting that night. I initially cast on the 104 stitches that the pattern called for and got to the end of the round and in the process of switching needle tips from the 8 to the 7 I looked and one end of the cable had come off six stitches. Crap. Okay take it all off and be more careful when I switch next time.

Okay so got that restarted and (the lighting is not the best due to the overhead light reflection) then  I realized that it was going to be waaayyy too loose.. Sigh. 

So I gave up on the idea of the citrus hat and decided to go with just a 2x2 rib all the way up on the size 7's. Cast on with the 8's and carefully changed to the 7's after doing one round just to make sure the edge was going to stretch and now, after almost twenty four hours..about two inches is done. I would say that about six hours of actual work on it. One advantage to working with worsted weight, and especially a hat is it works up very quickly. If I were still riding the bus this hat would be done in a week. One hour commute twice a day five days a week and 45 minute commute two days a week..yeah would have them both done before summer.

Needless to say I got the toe increases done on the Sheepicorn socks and put that aside to start the hat. I'm really loving the colors on this and by the time I get to the crown it's going to be mostly greens but it will still be pretty. The colors are swirling around the hat you can see sort of in the picture. I'm loving the texture on the yarn as well. It's not as tight as other yarns, almost has a roving feel to it but it's wonderfully soft Merino. I was afraid to do a gauge swatch because as it was with having to rip it back twice the yarn would catch on itself 'pilling' if you will when you pull on a chain stitch and the 'halo' of the yarn gets caught up in the next loop.

I'm already contemplating getting a DK weight for fingerless gloves or half finger gloves, depending on how ambitious I am. I'd love to get the semi solid purple and make a pair of fingerless gloves for Jon (my SO). So many plans so little time and money.
 

Happy New Year! Happy New Yarn!

 I hope whoever is reading this other than me has plans for yarn and projects for the year. I am planning on finishing two hats and two pairs of socks by the end of the year. Will see what happens. I tried to promise myself to work on the UFO's in bags but those are all bigger projects with charts that really need about two hours to dedicate figuring out where I am in the pattern and then doing at least one row. Right. On with new projects instead!

Have just been plugging along on the socks, got the replacement needles for the green socks so those are now on the ribbing, which I started too soon. Oh well, they may be for me anyway so I don't mind.

I had some money gifted to me for Christmas and tried to be frugal with the extras after the important non-knitting things were paid for. I got the replacement needles and splurged on two skeins of worsted weight yarn from Arcane Fibreworks. YAY!

But before that arrived I couldn't help it and cast on for the next pair of socks. For timing I cast on Jan 5 for these socks. So far I love the way the yarn is working up, it's nice and bouncy, the colors aren't pooling since it's a speckle and they keep my interest when a new color pops up. I decided on using the 'Sheepicorn' yarn because I wanted something light colored to work with for a change. The green socks are fine but the confetti dots on white called to me so now I'm almost done with the toe increases and my new yarn arrived!

I asked my son what colors from the Arcane website he wanted for a hat, he picked out the green one which is, 'Till Death Do Us Part' (on the right) and his friend/roommate picked out 'Neon Nights' on the left. They picked out two other choices but I went with these due to the other colors being a bit darker and will be using the 'Citrus Hat' pattern. Nice easy wide rib pattern so it will show off the colors the best. 

I haven't worked with worsted weight yarn in ages so this seems really thick to me, but I have the needles set aside already for the first hat. I'll be posting pictures of each stage along the way because the colors really are very much like the photos on the webpage. I'm very happy with them and looking forward to seeing how the colors work up in the hats.

Other than that, I figured out how to work around the new layout for Blogger, slightly different method of shifting the photos but it's working out. When there's progress I'll post but when there's nothing exciting happening not really worth posting.

May your yarn never tangle and your gauge always be right.
 

Many things have broken...

 First off, the library socks are on indefinite pause due to the wood needle I was trying to use proved to be less sturdy than I thought. Me and my iron grip broke one of the needle tips and I had to transfer both socks to DPNs and put it on hold. I don't have enough DPNs of the right size to do them together and don't trust my gauge doing them separately so they are put aside for now.

Second broken thing is Blogger. It won't let me format photos side by side any longer using the standard method I've been using for the past ten years. So I'm looking for another blog site that is free which is a very long process. This is what I get when I shift the right photo to the right hand margin. There is no help on forums for this issue and at the most what I get is 'send a message through the feedback using a screenshot'. 

So I just did that and they will see the content of this page as I was editing. So will see what happens.

Will update knitting things on my facebook page.

Hasta la knitter baby....

A little progress, then a little regress

 I have been stalling on working on the 'Library' sock pattern, the mint green ones because I was trying to use a 32" needle for both socks. It was crimping the cable join badly and I didn't (still don't) have a longer cable to use. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I used another 32" needle and finished the heels doing that. The small issue was, the other one is a slightly larger needle. The lace needle I'm using is a size 1 but 2.25 and the other one is 2.50, yes it makes a difference. Not too bad a difference so  I used the larger needle for the front of the sock in the pattern. I then decided, due to various frustrations with that single ball, to cut the yarn after the heel was finished and wind to smaller balls.

I also moved both socks back onto the single needle. After starting the pattern all the way around the leg I realized... four rows back I had decreased the stitches to 32 on the second needle. It was default for me but it messes up the pattern. It's supposed to be 34 on each side. So I am now TINKing the rows to get back to where I decreased the stitches. I am also going to cut the yarn again where I had used an 'invisible/magic' knot because a knot in a sock is not good. I'm going to overlap the yarns instead. I tried doing the spit friction join and it didn't felt well.

All my other projects are in a hold pattern because I was not feeling the knitting bug when it got to be 99 outside. Nights are cooling down wonderfully now but temps are going to go back up next week. Yuck. 

And of course, all kinds of yarn places are having a sale this weekend KP has a sale on 22 new colors of the Stroll sock yarn, I found out that Arcane Fibreworks has free shipping on ALL orders... dangerous that is. And Amazon has Super Saver on sale at prices I remember from 2000 close to $3.99 a skein. 

I DON'T NEED MORE YARN!

Said no one ever.

I do, however need that longer needle for sure to do two socks at a time. I have some money now so will be looking into that. Knitting....garden....knitting....garden...... decision, decisions....

That's my quick update for now. Pictures  of projects when there's more progress.

Another yarn matched to pattern

 Many years ago I designed a pair of fingerless gloves using some cotton/wool yarn that Beverly's carried briefly.

This is the Fern Garden Glove and I don't remember knitting a second one. I knitted this up, wrote the pattern as I went and then put it up on Ravelry (and at the time my etsy shop) for just the pattern. I adapted that edging from one that was done in all garter stitch and after looking at the pattern now, I could not figure out what the heck I was doing. It didn't make sense compared to the original pattern and I may well have missed a stitch or two in translation. No one ever contacted me about the pattern so maybe it worked. That edging is knitted lengthwise with the connecting edge as the first stitch in the row. Just pick up the stitches needed for the glove and continue on. Relatively easy knit actually and wonderful stitch pattern with my favorite leaf pattern on the back and a small mock cable on the palm.

The yarn was fine, from an American farm called Cestari that is now strictly online (I think they're still in business). They only had wool/cotton or all wool yarns milled in the US. Although not ideal for the pattern it worked out and it gave me a chance at the time to use a different yarn. 

After seeing the pictures several times looking for other things on my computer I wanted to remake the pattern in another yarn so I could put it up for sale again on Ravelry but didn't think I had the right yarn until I remembered this:

Another gifted yarn that unfortunately also had issues with breakage or it might have been me not cutting the ties correctly but I ended up tying it together in about four places, plus two more that were actually moth eaten. I could not in conscience use this wonderful soft yarn for socks. SW Merino, Yak and Silk it is soft and springy and wonderful greens. FERN GARDEN greens. PERFECT!

So then after winding it three times I had one short piece I could do a test on for the original edging. Not so easy. I couldn't figure it out so went in search of a similar edging that was already in stockinette.

And found it. Another vintage edging that dates probably from the 40's or 50's so had to look up what one of the abbreviations was.They used N for knit two together and o for yarn over. Other than that, it's a simple enough pattern but instead of knitting whatever length of trim you needed, this is knitted from the bottom edge to the selvedge.

I like it better because it's narrower and it's a bit m ore fern like as a leaf. I knitted up a swatch not knowing the configuration and when I ran out of yarn I realized I had only done one leaf section. So instead of casting on 10 for the edging and continue on until you finish the section you need, this has to be cast on for the total number of stitches needed for the length of trim. Much like the difference between knitting a scarf long ways and not crossways.

Oh and Rocky discovered the kumquat I knitted. Didn't realize what he was playing with until I caught him and saw the orange. Ohhhhnoyoudont, I hid it better this time and am now making a small ball for him. 

When I get going on the gloves I'll post some pictures.